The end of the Civil War was near
When quite accidentally,
A hero who sneezed, abruptly seized
Retreat and reversed it to victory!

His Medal of Honor pleased and thrilled
His proud little family group;
While pinning it on, some blood was spilled
And so it was planned he'd command... F TROOP!

Where Indian fights are colorful sights
And nobody takes a lickin',
Where paleface and redskin
Both turn chicken!

When drilling and fighting get them down
They know their morale can't droop
As long as they all relax in town
Before they resume with a bang and a boom... F TROOP!

STORYLINE

This show was slapstick television from the first wrong-way
charge, which is how it starts.

During the Civil War, a lowly private was riding away from the
front on a personal errand for an officer. As he started out he
started sneezing which scared his horse into a gallop. Both
actions confused the rest of the company who then followed him in
his "charge". Well this action turned the tide of the
battle and the lowly private saw himself promoted to a Captain
and given, what would turn out to be, the worst command in the
military, Fort Courage which was manned by the F-Troop.

Ken Barry played Captain Parmenter who was a natural klutz. Being
awkward at most everything it wasn't to hard for the troop to
run their many shenanigans right under his nose. The local Indian
Tribe was even in with the troop on various money making schemes.

Sergeant O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) was the non-commissioned
leader of the troop and thought up most of the hijinks. Corporal
Agarn (Larry Storch) was his partner in crime and often ran
interference with the Captain.

Then there is the fierce and hostile Indian Tribe led by Chief
Wild Eagle (Frank DeKova). He had learned from the troop that if
there were no wild Indians around that the Army would close Fort
Courage and move the troop elsewhere. Since the Tribe shared in
the Troop's illegally gotten gains and even participated in
many of the schemes it was decided that they should occasionally
put on a "Crazy Indian Show".

Last but certainly not least was the Captain's love interest,
Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson) who was the local town's
shopkeeper and would have liked to see the Captain settle down
and get married... to her that is.

It was a thoroughly delightful and light hearted show. However
production costs and a sinking audience doomed the show after
just two seasons, it has done very well in post production
syndication.

(2) Video Clips of F Troop

Passings

Forrest Tucker died in 1986 of lung cancer, he was 67
Frank Dekova died in 1981 of heart failure, he was 71
Don Diamond died in 2011 of heart failure, he was 90

TRIVIA:

The character Wrangler Jane was created as a love interest for
Captain Parmenter. After hiring Melody Patterson to play the part
the studio discovered that she had lied about her age and was in
fact only 16 years old.
Fearing unfavorable reaction they rewrote the character removing
any romantic thoughts until Melody turned 18 during the second
season. She was then again allowed to have more than just
plutonic intentions for the good Captain.